Above: Chris Daly and Paula Garcia Stone

Private View: 7th of July, 7pm to 9:30 pm

Basement and Ground Floor Gallery

Hundred Years Gallery is proud to present a group show by artists Chris Daly, Sisetta Zappone, Anna Burel and Paula Garcia Stone. The exhibition is organised by Jaime Valtierra, currently artist in residence at the space.

“ENDS” brings together a collection of works concerned with the nature of contemporary image production and the exploration of the human body both from medical and artistic perspectives. As in the case of the work by Chris Daly the enquiry into the authenticity of the production of images raises questions pertinent to our current hyper-mediatised culture. In his work he utilises contemporary mechanisms of appropriation, which makes up for much of our daily intake of imagery with the intention of evaluating the level of ‘originality’ inherit in them and conversely of our own sense of reality. Similar, to some respect, is the work by Paula Garcia Stone which looks into our perception of the world in an environment where scientific imagery has undoubtedly created new perspectives of who we are as humans. The ESEM (Environmental Scanning Electron Micrographic) images in the show depict, in her own words, ‘that space between our consciousness of reality when awake, and the dreamlike reality of the microscopic. Viscera poeticized.” ­It is within this terrain of the internal that the work of Anna Burel and Sisetta Zappone operate. In the case of the former, her practice centers on the study of the body from the perspective of everyday psychology and its meaning in medical or historical terms. Her work on the ground floor space belongs to a series of artworks as part of a larger project entitled ‘Conceiving Histories’, a partnership with scholar Isabel Davis that explores the history of conceiving. Zapone`s prints selected for this occasion were produced as part of an arts residency in Mexico, Veracruz. They depict, echoing other pieces in the exhibition, a highly personal vision of the interiority of the body in a cross narrative of anatomical design and a micro cosmos of the imaginary.

Above: Anna Burel and Sisetta Zappone

Chris Daly lives & works in London. Chris studied Fine Art at Camberwell and Chelsea colleges, graduating with an MA in 2013. International residencies have included ‘Tokyo Wondersite’ in Japan & Queensland College of Art, Griffin University, Australia. Chris is currently involved in launching an arts website and magazine called ‘Soap and Rocket’. His primary art practice is about imagery. The works use photographic and video mediums to experiment with colour, tone and edit. The idea is to try and better understand the ‘exponential reality’- the composite of image, aesthetic and memory – by questioning the ambiguities of authenticity and verisimilitude. Naturally, any objectivity is already compromised – and then further subverted by a desire for control. In the ‘Fake Phoney Reality’ series Chris searches for and photographs metaphorically equivocal, or uncategorisable images without a hierarchy of subject matter. The pictures are both ‘real’ and hyperreal, serendipitous or planned, possibly appropriated or resurrected. The result of an aimless but calculated intent.

Anna Burel (b. France 1985) is a London based artist working in drawing, collage, photography, sculpture and textiles. She completed a Master’s degree with Distinction in Fashion Cultures at University of the Arts London in 2011.She has exhibited in London and throughout Europe including the Barbican Arts Centre and Biagiotti Progetto Arte. She regularly takes part in residencies abroad. Anna Burel’s work is an interrogation of the body and particularly the female body under medical scrutiny. Her practice is a study of human emotions, fears and desires that constitute the fabric of everyday life; looking into the banal to reveal the absurdity and beauty of the mind. She is currently working on a collaborative project entitled Conceiving Histories with literary expert Isabel Davis, senior lecturer at Birkbeck University, exploring the history of trying to conceive.

Paula García Stone (b. 1959) is a London based artist currently working with sound, and collage incorporating photography. She has also been making work in the field of Artists’ Books. Previously a painter, she holds MA’s in Fine Art, Creative Technology, and a Sound & Music Diploma. Her career spans over many years and current exhibitions are ‘Inspired By’ at the V&A winning the digital ­media prize, Morley Gallery, London. Artists’ Books and the Medical Humanities, organised by the University of Kent, Beaney Museum, Canterbury. She has work in private collections, and The Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid. “The subject of my work has always been the human body, having been in and out of hospital most of my life. Even in its absence, as in my sound works, the focus continues to be based on the human experience. I think of this work as objective self-portraiture, sometimes, a re-modeling of the natural order. We are in an age when our view of ‘the figure’ in art is being completely changed by science and technology. The ESEM (Environmental Scanning Electron Micrographic) mages shown here, for me depict that space between our consciousness of reality when awake, and the dreamlike reality of the microscopic. Viscera poeticized.”

Sisseta Zaponne is an independent Italian printmaker living in London. Her prints can be found in a number of major public and private collections including The Italian National Print Collection in Milan and the V&A in London. Her most recent residency project took place in Mexico, Veracruz at graphic arts centre La Ceiba Grafica where she spent 3 months producing the new series of lithographies on display at Hundred Years Gallery. Her practice embraces the idea of micro cosmos being macro cosmos’ mirror, where as she explains “nature nurtures our minds and thoughts; teaching us how to observe and how to wonder through its metamorphosis”. From a meticulous observation of reality Sisetta seeks to produce shapes that are rooted in everyone’s subconscious. Her place of birth (Aspromonte, Southern Italy) represents a crucial aspect of her work; it reveals within her practice Greek, Latin and Arabian influences brought forward through legends and today`s local culture.

Events

Thursday 14th July at 2pm: Art and Medicine, A Passionate Relationship.

A conversation led by Sonia Bhatt, Ray Malone and the artists involved in the show.

Conceiving Histories looks into the archives to find a history of pre-pregnancy: that is, the diagnostic ambiguity of early pregnancy, the experience of trying to conceive and the politics of childlessness in the past. This is a study of fantasies about the body, about objective and scientific knowledge, and of parenthood. Conceiving Histories investigates the very ordinary experience of not being pregnant for month on month; the difficulties for medical professionals in diagnosing pregnancy; and men’s anxieties about their own reproductive fortunes. It looks at fakes and fashions, dreams and denials, trying and testing.